This allows the NTS to track all the transactions of taxed virtual items. Korean publishers haven't made a peep since this law has been passed, but it creates a global milestone for those that succeed it.
South Korea Begins Taxing Virtual Assets [Game|Life]

I walked down a little while ago to hand them the twenty euros required as a deposit. I hadn't yet done this, though they'd signed me up for a preorder there anyway over the phone.

As I handed the guy behind the counter my 20 quid, he said: "Great! Now in December you only owe us another 250 euros!"

I got dangerous. "Hold the phone. What? The suggested retail price is 250 euros. I just gave you twenty."

"Well, yes, but that's for Europe. Our VAT is higher."

I'm sorry, this shit stinks. As you may or may not know, VAT is the exorbitant regressive tax (ie: a tax that extracts more money from those with low income than it does from those with high income) that Europeans have to pay on every purchase. In Europe, it is an average 16.5%. In Ireland, it is 21%.

Okay, I'll pay your Mickey Mouse Socialist Tax, you fuckin' rat bastard commies. But let's see who's getting gouged here. European VAT is 16.5%, which is 4.5% less than Irish VAT. So, at most, I should be paying 4.5% more than the average cheese-sniffing Frenchie or Bratwurst-flossing German. 16.5% of 250 euros if 42.25. That means that 20 euros is actually almost twice as much as the difference in VAT.

You know, it's not like I can't afford an extra 10 or 20 euros. Hell, that's less than my daily booze allowance. But there's a reason Europeans complain about the price of consoles and games and it's because we're constantly getting gouged on shit like this. Being a gamer in this country is more expensive than heroin. Florian Eckhardt

Digital Battle is reporting that MediaMarkt, a German retailer, is taking pre-orders on the 60GB PS3 for 600, or around $765. They seem a bit astonished by the price, but note that you'll get a free game: Formula 1, Motorstorm, SingStar or Genji.

Mark my words: 600 is exactly what the PS3 is going to sell for in Europe. People who don't know exactly how hard Europeans get boned on games and console always just try to translate the US price into the stronger currency at whatever the current exchange rate is, then maybe rounding it up a bit. This is not how it works: companies instead translate by assuming that one dollar is equal to one euro when pricing for European release. Considering a dollar is worth 0.79 or thereabouts, it's a big price jack.

Why do they assume a 1:1 currency rate? Well, partly, it's because of Value Added Tax built into the price of products, which is about 20%. Since the disparity between the dollar and the euro is currently around 20% in favor of the Euro, selling a $599 product for 599 probably seems fair, except that companies are supposed to be swallowing the V.A.T. tax themselves, not bumping the price up for consumers. But that almost never happens.

And sometimes, as in the case of the European DS Lite release, the cost of the system (even at a hypothetical 1:1 exchange rate) is even more than it is in the States. Yup. We get boned. Florian Eckhardt

PS3 Pre-order In Germany. $765. Seriously. [Digital Battle]